Son: Blu-ray Review

Arriving on Blu-ray this week is writer/director Ivan Kavanagh’s latest horror film, Son, starring Andi Matichak (Halloween 2018), Luke David Blumm (The King of Staten Island) and Emile Hirsch (who also starred in Kavenagh’s Never Grow Old). For those who love horror that focus on the nightmares of parenthood, Son may be the right pick for you.

Son opens with a young, barefoot pregnant woman, on the run from a couple of men that seem to be following her. Once she loses them she pulls her car off the road and gives birth to a little boy in a scene that is difficult to watch. Having the mother say, “I don’t want you” to the baby coming out of her is tough.  Cut to several years later, and that young woman, Laura (Matichak) is now a happy mother, to a sweet young boy named David (Blumm).

The mother and son’s peaceful existence comes to a sudden end when Laura opens David’s bedroom door one night to see a group of people standing over him while he is asleep. As soon as she runs to get help, they vanish without a trace. When the local detective, Paul (Hirsch) is unable to find any evidence to Laura’s claims, he finds himself stumped. However, there is now a new problem. David has suddenly become deathly ill, with his internal organs and flesh beginning to rot away. The only thing that can heal him is human blood, but is he a vampire or something else entirely?

We learn that Laura was raised in a cult and that David is the spawn of the demon they worshiped. The cut want the boy and will stop at nothing to get him. Being on the run is hard enough, but when the only way to keep your child alive it to feed human victims to him, then the job becomes that much more difficult. What makes Son work so well is the strong bond between Laura and David. Both Matichak and Blumm are fantastic here, but credit goes to Kavanagh for creating such an emotional and sometimes terrifying film. I recommend giving this one a look.

By: Marc Ferman